This archive report was first published on 16 July 2020.
Twitter Hacking Spree Raises Concerns Ahead of US Presidential Election ¶
On July 15, 2020, Twitter was hit by an extraordinary hacking spree that briefly muzzled some of its most widely followed accounts, sparking questions about the platform's security and resilience in the run-up to the US presidential election.
According to Twitter, hackers obtained control of employee credentials to hijack accounts including those of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, former president Barack Obama, reality television star Kim Kardashian, and tech billionaire and Tesla founder Elon Musk. The company stated that the hackers used this access to take control of many highly-visible accounts and tweet on their behalf.
Security experts have long feared that Twitter's role as a critical communications platform for political candidates and public officials could be compromised, potentially wreaking havoc with the November 3 presidential election or compromising national security. Adam Conner, vice president for technology policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank, warned that this incident would be infinitely worse on November 3rd.
The hackers posed as celebrities and the wealthy, asking followers to send the digital currency bitcoin to a series of addresses. By evening, 400 bitcoin transfers were made worth a combined $120,000, with half of the victims having funds in US bitcoin exchanges, a quarter in Europe, and a quarter in Asia.
While the financial damage may be limited, the damage to Twitter's reputation may be more serious. Dan Guido, CEO of security company Trail of Bits, criticized Twitter's response to the hack, stating that it took them five hours to get a handle on the incident.
Twitter has assured that it is looking into what other malicious activity the hackers may have conducted or information they may have accessed and will share more information as they have it.
Mass compromises of Twitter accounts via theft of employee credentials or problems with third-party applications have occurred before, but Wednesday's hack was the worst to date.
